The Hics

The Hics have been receiving a fair bit of attention recently and it’s easy to see why. I caught up with them after an amazing sold out show at London’s new Oslo venue.

Vocalist Roxane almost immediately apologises for having a cough and being a bit snuffly and continues to be one of the most polite people probably ever. “We’re in the studio right now working on new material.” Roxane says, she can’t really tell us what body of work it’s going to form “we’re just recording songs and seeing where that takes us.”

Their last EP ‘Tangle’ was released back in August with the track ‘Cold Air’ featured on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM on GTAV. “Rockstar (Games) just phoned us and asked if we’d like to be on the game, because Gilles had put us on the list for his station. That was mad for all of us, because even for me being a girl, GTA has been the one game I’ve always been able to get in to. It’s crazy that at any one time during the day someone can be playing that game listening to our track and we’ll never know it!”

It’s really no surprise Peterson chose them given his love of jazz, and The Hics are no stranger to the odd saxophone. “When Sam & Jacob started the band as two drummers and people would just come in and record things and the saxophone just stayed” she adds. Since those early days the band has become a six-piece meeting at Westminster’s Pimlico School and a wealth of creation. “We’re never really sure what sound we’re going to come out with, it’s not too rehearsed.” As a result the band have been stamped with some pretty weird tags. “Like Nu-Soul.. we don’t even know what that is.”

“Live performances are what we pride ourselves upon though.” I ask if they have any plans for more shows in the near future. “Not right now but after Thursday we’re hoping more gigs come our way.” I think that will almost certainly be a definite.

The band’s Tangle EP can be streamed in its entirety on SoundCloud below:

The sextet has also taken to remix duties on Glasgow’s Prides track The Seeds You Sow: